Digital learning devices don't have to break the bank

Monday

Aug 18, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 18, 2014 at 5:34 AM

AUSTIN, Texas - Cutting the cord might be a little easier if everything weren't wireless. For parents of students heading off to college or returning to dorm/starter-apartment life, you want to help out with the right tools for higher learning. But technology moves so quickly that bad buys are likely to end up quickly forgotten in a drawer. And unless you've won the lottery, you're probably already sweating all the collegiate expenses stacking up.

For parents of students heading off to college or returning to dorm/starter-apartment life, you want to help out with the right tools for higher learning. But technology moves so quickly that bad buys are likely to end up quickly forgotten in a drawer. And unless you've won the lottery, you're probably already sweating all the collegiate expenses stacking up.

In putting together a list of some tech basics, let's lean toward items that aren't overpriced and impractical. (No college freshman, in my opinion, needs a $2,500 4K HDTV unless she is willing to pay for it herself.)

I've been doing this back-to-school tech guide for a few years, and the same rules tend to apply every August: With laptops, you get what you pay for (and you should get the extended warranty); with accessories such as headphones and flash drives, good enough tends to be more than enough; and tablets such as the Apple iPad are great, but they haven't replaced computers.

Here are a few recommendations and alternates for popular tech products:

Laptops

Except for very inexpensive laptops in the sub-$500 range, discussion must start with the MacBook Air, the sleek machine that received a speed upgrade in April. It starts at $899 for the 11-inch model or $999 for the 13-inch with a $100 Apple Store gift card thrown in for students.

Apple bundles in great software at no extra cost, including iMovie, iPhoto and Garage Band, all of which are due for updates as part of a free operating-system upgrade in the fall.

Two Dell laptops have caught my eye - the XPS 13 (starts at $1,199), which has the option of a touch screen, and the Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1, which folds back from a laptop to a tablet-style touch-screen device. It starts at $399 and, like the XPS 13, runs Windows 8.1. For PC purchases of $699 or more, Dell is offering a free Venue tablet as a back-to-school promotion.

HP's Pavilion x360 13z touch-screen laptop has an AMD quad-core processor inside and sells for $479 with Windows 8.1. It also folds back on itself to resemble a tablet.

Chromebooks, which run Google's Chrome OS software, used to be too underpowered and limited to take seriously. But as a secondary computer or for students who live their academic lives in Web browsers and Google Drive documents, a Chromebook might be enough to get a lot done. The Asus C300MA, at $250, seems like a good bet at a very low price.

Tablets

Just a year or two ago, it seemed as if tablets were poised to leave desktops and laptops in the dust. But then iPad sales plateaued, a glut of tablet competitors failed to topple Apple's device and traditional computers made a comeback.

Still, don't count tablets out entirely. The Apple iPad Air (starts at $499) and its small cousin the iPad Mini with Retina Display (starts at $399) are tough to ignore. They're light, powerful and run more mobile apps, including iPhone apps, than any competitor.

But for students who aren't Apple devotees, there are other options. For those who swear by their Android smartphones, there's the Google Nexus 10 (starts at $399) and Nexus 7 (starts at $229), which make good tablet companions.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is a full-blown laptop in a chunkier tablet's body. It starts at $799 for a 64-gigabyte version, but I can't recommend a device that runs Windows 8.1 and leaves practically no room for anything else. The next step up is a $999 model with twice the memory.

Smartphones

Smartphones are perhaps the most personal device a college student will have. It's the thing they reach for first in the morning instead of the alarm clock. Typically, the phone is the alarm clock.

So highly individualized are phones that I can't suggest springing a new device on a student without consulting them on what they need and want to use if they're not fine with their current phone.

If you're shopping together, you should know that Samsung's Galaxy phones are wildly popular, but their cheap-feeling plastic and unnecessary features have not been a big hit with me. Instead, on the Android side, I love the HTC One (M8), which sells for $199 or less. The new LG G3 phone (about $199) has also been earning solid reviews, though its large size - it has a 5.5-inch screen - may turn off some.

Dorm odds and ends

• Bring your own Internet service with the Verizon Wireless Jetpack MHS291L, a mobile 4G LTE hotspot that can connect up to 10 Wi-Fi devices at the same time. Pricing varies depending on whether you sign up for a service contract or pay month-to-month.

• For students who don't use their phones as alarm clocks, I like the Tivoli Audio Albergo Bluetooth music player and clock radio. It's pricey at $250, but a style-obsessed student might split the cost with you.

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